STATEMENT: My work is about interpreting the human and natural made world and what we experience in life relating to nature, the body, words, texture and pattern. I am drawn to patterns and textures in the natural environment. Textiles are also a big influence on my work, where systems of woven, tiled or tessellated designs inspire my approach. With these as my guiding principles I approach my art practice more as a formalist than a conceptualist.My artwork is in drawing, printmaking and book arts. Drawing is my pastime, providing ameditative basis to my art practice and forming the seed for further work in printmaking. In printmaking I use mainly monotype, cut paper stencils, relief blocks and collagraph plates. My process involves making matrices that create a lexicon of parts I then collage back together. This then begets a series of like works. I began making books when I watched people look through my stacks of drawings. It seemed they could be made into books. I like the intimate connection a book can make, to allow people to touch the pages and feel the textures that the works on paper have.

BIOGRAPHY: Gwen Partin received her MFA in printmaking from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, and her BA in studio art in printmaking and drawing from Sonoma State University. She is currently a member of Form+Content Gallery. Her work has been in numerous one person and group exhibitions including the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Medical Clinic, Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Catherine University; the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota and has work in both public and private collections. She was a graphic designer, illustrator and educator preceding an early retirement to pursue her art practice full time.
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